THE MICROBE OF SPLENIC FEVER 185 



with, the food, or breathing, the germs the animal 

 becomes infected. The germs find their way into 

 the blood. Here they thrive, grow, produce spores, 

 multiplying with great rapidity. The fatal poison 

 is generated in the blood correspondingly fast. 



All this is done quickly. As the amount of 

 poison attains a certain degree, the animal sud- 

 denly drops; the pulse and the breathing are more 

 rapid; there is a struggle; the animal is dead. 



The other form is more prolonged. The pulse 

 is quickened; the breathing is hurried; there is 

 bleeding at the nose; the excreta are tinged with 

 blood. In one day, or in several, the animal is 

 dead. 



Human beings take the disease in either of two 

 ways. First, by breathing or swallowing the 

 germs. The minute germs, scattered by infected 

 flocks or herds, rise on particles of dust, and are 

 breathed by workmen among the animals. Or 

 water, tainted by the germs, may be used as drink 

 by the workmen. After infection, the symptoms 

 may appear in a few hours, or not till as many 

 days, fever, headache, chills, sickness. In this 

 form of the disease, if fatal, death comes in from 

 two to eight days. 



In the other form of the disease, the germs are 

 introduced to the circulation by working on in- 

 fected wool or hides, through some scratch on the 

 hands or forearms. Infected in this way, the dis- 

 ease develops rapidly. On the surface of the body 

 quickly come inflammatory eruptions, carbuncles, 



